ARTICLE 7: What is Translation Translation An Advanced Resource Book, Basil Hatim and Jeremy Munday, Routledge Applied Lingusitics, Oxfora, 2004.
When I think about the answer for the question ‘What is translation?, lots of alternative answers come to my mind. First of all, the translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target language text. It can be seen as a bridge between two languages. In fact, translation is the transmittal of written text from one language into another. Therefore, we can say translation is the action of interpretation of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent text. The article by Hatim and Munday says that the meaning of the translation is by no means straightforward. This is the word translation itself whether conceived as a process or as a product. As the articles states translation is not easy to define and because of this like many other important terms it is often used without definition. To begin with, most linguistics have found the notion of meaning transference unsatisfactory and preferred instead the weaker notion of equivalence, replacing the idea of translation as the transference of meaning from one set of patterned symbols into another.Moreover, Catford replaces the idea as the replacement of textual materials in one language by equivalent textual material in another language. I learned from this article that a language can be analysed as existing on a number of hierarchical levels in terms of phonology or graphology, morphemes and lexical items (words), sentences and semantics (meaning). Also, these properties of language can be considered at a formal level without reference to the language is used. There is an actual use of language pragmatic meaning if it is thought as an act of communication in context. I agree that it is affected both by the participant’s processing of its linguistic forms and by the context, including the immediate situation, other modes of communication, gestures or images, participant’s background and cultural knowledge, their thoughts, emotions and intentions. As an English teacher we should know the meanings such as utterance and sentence. The article clears up such problematic issues that are big concern for us. Utterance refering to a strecth of language used by somebody in context to do something may or may not be grammatically complete or conform to grammatical norms. We should know its’ difference from the sentece reserved for grammatically complete units regarded purely formally without reference to context. It should be known that many utterances are also sentences, but not all sentences have been utterances. I think that if a teacher does not know the meaning such as discourse and text, he/she has spended all 4 years in vain beucase they are crucial and need to be learned. Text is any stretch of language considered in isolation from its context and discourse is any stretch of language, written or spoken, considered in context. As an educational activity, translation is considered a learning device or a kind of activity is the work of professional translator who no longer translates to understand, but to make others understand. As the article mentions, a translation refers to the same events in the real or fictional world as the original. It is the best part that I liked in the article because it emphasis on the loyalty of translation. It is way of being professional to be connected to original one. In this extent the author’s perspective in this article matches with your own perspective concerning the issues raised in this article the author’s perspective matches with my own perspective concerning the issues. I agree also that in the popular view of translation, something in one language is a translation of something in another language because they mean the same, not because they sound the same or maintain the same word order. To put this in terms of level equivalences, a general assumption is that the semantic level should take precedence over all others. The article contributed to me as a prospective English teacher, the meanings of pragmatic equivalence, the equivalence of meaning, functional and discoursal equivalence, cultural equivalence, equivalence across levels. I think that all these contributed my ideas about the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language and my ideas about translation and translation teaching. For a teacher it is important to be aware of pragmatic equivalence. Utterances perform social actions and pragmatic theory concentrates on how receivers of messages, by relating what is said to its context, interpret what the sender s trying to do with their words. While teaching , teacher should know different way of saying something and be aware of the cultural or national differences. While teaching something from other cultures, the teacher should know how to adapt it and change it. In fact, the literal semantic meaning of an utterance, participants' background knowledge, the situation and shared social convention are crucial in the teaching process. I liked the example that ‘thank you’ in English and in French. In English “thank you” often shows acceptance of an offer, but in French “merci” is commonly a refusal. In the future I am planning to integrate what I have learned in this article because it is very effective and beneficial. In the article, the attention is paid to identification of genre of the original text, conceived as a particular type of a communicative event conforming to particular socio-cultural conventions and is realized by particular grammatical and lexical units and the choice of appropriate genre conventions for the translation. I think that looking the translation in this way is very helpful for me because I learned from this article that how the culture is important and how crucial to find the equal value in languages that you work on it because providing the same message has big importance. Furthermore, the issues such as replacement of textual materials in one language by equivalent textual material in another language and the transference of meaning from one set of patterned symbols into another will help me in my teaching career. ARTICLE 2 Kvam, S. (2007).Terminology and Translation Theory: A functional-pragmatic approach. 19.05.2012.
The article ‘Terminology and Translation Theory’ by Kvam has significance in terms of being a good helper understanding the concept terms covering both the systematic designation of defined concepts within a specific field as well as ‘field specific lexemes in a broader sense’. The article mentions about the object of functional pragmatic translation, text as a communicative unit, representing a specific genre, which again is defined as conventionalized patterns of communication.
I found the article very useful because it explains how translation is seen as an interlingual, target group oriented reproduction of a text in a given genre. It says that within a functional-pragmatic framework terms cannot be translated in communicative isolation, but as structural configurations of onomastic fields to fulfil a specific set of functions in the target text discourse community.
Actually, I combined this article with an article that I read for our class discussion. The article was ‘Functional Theories of Translation’ which is also significant in terms of understanding some theories including the text type, translational action, translation-oriented text analysis and case studies as well. The main characteristics of each text type are summarized by Reiss. Plain communication of facts, creative composition, behavioral responses and audiomedial texts are some of them. The first one is informative, the second is expressive, and third one is operative while the last one is audiomedial TT. Reiss lists a series of intralinguistic and extralinguistic instruction criteria by which the adequacy of text type may be assessed. Intralinguistic criteria is semantic,lexical, grammatical and stylistic features while the extralinguistic criteria is situation, subject field, time, place, receiver, sender and affective implications.
I think that all detailed information above has importance because these criteria can change according to text type. For example, the first purpose of translation of any content based on text should be protecting semantic equivalence while a news item TT would be probably place grammatical criteria in second place. There are lots of theories related to translation and in this article it shows some different aspects that move translation theory beyond to a consideration of lower linguistic levels, the more words on the page, beyond even the effect they create, towards a consideration of a communicative purpose of translation. The problematic concern is that there has been a number of criticisms over this theory. The weird thing that I realized and the article confess itself why there should only be three types of language function. As it suggest may be there is a possibility of the forth function. In the article the example for that is ‘Ladies and gentleman’ that is used to signal the start of formal speech or announcement.
According to me, the translation method employed is far more than just text type because the translator’s own role and purpose, as well as socio cultural pressures, also affect the kind of translation strategy that is adopted. I mean the method is just one part but the translator himself constitutes the big partition.
The article contributed me to differentiate between roles and players involving in a communicative process. The initiator is the company or individual who needs the translation and commissioner is the individual who contacts translator.
In addition, in the article the terminology is seen as the systematic designation of defined concepts within a specific field. In fact it demands specialized knowledge and the authorization to exercise a specific profession connected to this specialized knowledge. It is also connected to language use in specific professional situations by people with specific qualifications for exercising a given profession. This is indeed a pragmatic approach to terminology, being derived from a pragmatic definition of Fachsprache or special language as this is frequently labeled in English: Verbal and non-verbal official professional communication, carried out by specialists for the purpose of representing the social interests of an organization.
I like the idea that as a teacher I can look the vocabulary and decide which is appropriate for my students because as stated in one of the example from the article, for a vocabulary there are many options. The example in the article is related to the onomastic field diabetes mellitus are translated differently depending on the specific needs of the translation situation. The article states that a text on eye diseases in connection with diabetes written by an American eye specialist for non-specialist doctors was translated into Norwegian as an information leaflet for nurses working at municipal health stations in Norway. The knowledge level of the two target groups differed, but both target groups have professional knowledge on the field of diabetes. I agree with the author in terms of the importance of translation commission and the necessity of commission’s giving information such as the intended text functions; the addressees, the time and place of text reception, medium and the motive
As an English teacher I think that the case study in the article is a good sample for me especially the motive part because it says that it has a purpose of teaching British children the basics of coking in an entertaining way using tools and ingredients that are readily available. I think that as a teacher, I like to give students chance to practice what they learn. They are transmitting information about cookery and specific recipes. It has also an appellative function. Their age is 10 and their parents are purchasers of the book. The time difference has little importance and for the medium there are many photographs and illustrations. In the results of the case study it says there are important differences of culture, especially regarding customs, experience and presuppositions. They learn the translation with an intended text. I am planning to integrate this part. It is beneficial for me to learn the features of medium such as non verbal elements, the register of the text and presuppositions are crucial for the translation process and product. The register of the lexis is the factor that is difficult for the translator to decide. The basic relevant factors is that we are dealing with a recipe book and as is well known, recipes are strictly organized text variety or genre with conventions that vary interlingually and the other is related to appellative function. For the presupposition, the problem is the use of text results from the divergence n cultural background for translator.
Lastly, I like the idea that as a teacher I can look the vocabulary and decide which is appropriate for my students because as stated in one of the example from the article, for a vocabulary there are many options. The example in the article is related to the onomastic field diabetes mellitus are translated differently depending on the specific needs of the translation situation. The article states that a text on eye diseases in connection with diabetes written by an American eye specialist for non-specialist doctors was translated into Norwegian as an information leaflet for nurses working at municipal health stations in Norway. The knowledge level of the two target groups differed, but both target groups have professional knowledge on the field of diabetes. There was a clear sign of professional communication between different professional groups with differing knowledge within one onomastic field. . In this case the use of terminology indicates the shared knowledge of the groups.
Translation An Advanced Resource Book, Basil Hatim and Jeremy Munday, Routledge Applied Lingusitics, Oxfora, 2004.
When I think about the answer for the question ‘What is translation?, lots of alternative answers come to my mind. First of all, the translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target language text. It can be seen as a bridge between two languages. In fact, translation is the transmittal of written text from one language into another. Therefore, we can say translation is the action of interpretation of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent text.
The article by Hatim and Munday says that the meaning of the translation is by no means straightforward. This is the word translation itself whether conceived as a process or as a product. As the articles states translation is not easy to define and because of this like many other important terms it is often used without definition.
To begin with, most linguistics have found the notion of meaning transference unsatisfactory and preferred instead the weaker notion of equivalence, replacing the idea of translation as the transference of meaning from one set of patterned symbols into another.Moreover, Catford replaces the idea as the replacement of textual materials in one language by equivalent textual material in another language.
I learned from this article that a language can be analysed as existing on a number of hierarchical levels in terms of phonology or graphology, morphemes and lexical items (words), sentences and semantics (meaning). Also, these properties of language can be considered at a formal level without reference to the language is used. There is an actual use of language pragmatic meaning if it is thought as an act of communication in context. I agree that it is affected both by the participant’s processing of its linguistic forms and by the context, including the immediate situation, other modes of communication, gestures or images, participant’s background and cultural knowledge, their thoughts, emotions and intentions.
As an English teacher we should know the meanings such as utterance and sentence. The article clears up such problematic issues that are big concern for us. Utterance refering to a strecth of language used by somebody in context to do something may or may not be grammatically complete or conform to grammatical norms. We should know its’ difference from the sentece reserved for grammatically complete units regarded purely formally without reference to context. It should be known that many utterances are also sentences, but not all sentences have been utterances. I think that if a teacher does not know the meaning such as discourse and text, he/she has spended all 4 years in vain beucase they are crucial and need to be learned. Text is any stretch of language considered in isolation from its context and discourse is any stretch of language, written or spoken, considered in context.
As an educational activity, translation is considered a learning device or a kind of activity is the work of professional translator who no longer translates to understand, but to make others understand. As the article mentions, a translation refers to the same events in the real or fictional world as the original. It is the best part that I liked in the article because it emphasis on the loyalty of translation. It is way of being professional to be connected to original one. In this extent the author’s perspective in this article matches with your own perspective concerning the issues raised in this article the author’s perspective matches with my own perspective concerning the issues. I agree also that in the popular view of translation, something in one language is a translation of something in another language because they mean the same, not because they sound the same or maintain the same word order. To put this in terms of level equivalences, a general assumption is that the semantic level should take precedence over all others.
The article contributed to me as a prospective English teacher, the meanings of pragmatic equivalence, the equivalence of meaning, functional and discoursal equivalence, cultural equivalence, equivalence across levels. I think that all these contributed my ideas about the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language and my ideas about translation and translation teaching. For a teacher it is important to be aware of pragmatic equivalence. Utterances perform social actions and pragmatic theory concentrates on how receivers of messages, by relating what is said to its context, interpret what the sender s trying to do with their words. While teaching , teacher should know different way of saying something and be aware of the cultural or national differences. While teaching something from other cultures, the teacher should know how to adapt it and change it. In fact, the literal semantic meaning of an utterance, participants' background knowledge, the situation and shared social convention are crucial in the teaching process. I liked the example that ‘thank you’ in English and in French. In English “thank you” often shows acceptance of an offer, but in French “merci” is commonly a refusal.
In the future I am planning to integrate what I have learned in this article because it is very effective and beneficial. In the article, the attention is paid to identification of genre of the original text, conceived as a particular type of a communicative event conforming to particular socio-cultural conventions and is realized by particular grammatical and lexical units and the choice of appropriate genre conventions for the translation. I think that looking the translation in this way is very helpful for me because I learned from this article that how the culture is important and how crucial to find the equal value in languages that you work on it because providing the same message has big importance. Furthermore, the issues such as replacement of textual materials in one language by equivalent textual material in another language and the transference of meaning from one set of patterned symbols into another will help me in my teaching career.
ARTICLE 2
Kvam, S. (2007).Terminology and Translation Theory: A functional-pragmatic approach. 19.05.2012.
http://www.eleto.gr/download/Conferences/6th%20Conference/6th_27-01-KvamSigmund%20paper_V03.pdf
The article ‘Terminology and Translation Theory’ by Kvam has significance in terms of being a good helper understanding the concept terms covering both the systematic designation of defined concepts within a specific field as well as ‘field specific lexemes in a broader sense’. The article mentions about the object of functional pragmatic translation, text as a communicative unit, representing a specific genre, which again is defined as conventionalized patterns of communication.
I found the article very useful because it explains how translation is seen as an interlingual, target group oriented reproduction of a text in a given genre. It says that within a functional-pragmatic framework terms cannot be translated in communicative isolation, but as structural configurations of onomastic fields to fulfil a specific set of functions in the target text discourse community.
Actually, I combined this article with an article that I read for our class discussion. The article was ‘Functional Theories of Translation’ which is also significant in terms of understanding some theories including the text type, translational action, translation-oriented text analysis and case studies as well. The main characteristics of each text type are summarized by Reiss. Plain communication of facts, creative composition, behavioral responses and audiomedial texts are some of them. The first one is informative, the second is expressive, and third one is operative while the last one is audiomedial TT. Reiss lists a series of intralinguistic and extralinguistic instruction criteria by which the adequacy of text type may be assessed. Intralinguistic criteria is semantic,lexical, grammatical and stylistic features while the extralinguistic criteria is situation, subject field, time, place, receiver, sender and affective implications.
I think that all detailed information above has importance because these criteria can change according to text type. For example, the first purpose of translation of any content based on text should be protecting semantic equivalence while a news item TT would be probably place grammatical criteria in second place. There are lots of theories related to translation and in this article it shows some different aspects that move translation theory beyond to a consideration of lower linguistic levels, the more words on the page, beyond even the effect they create, towards a consideration of a communicative purpose of translation. The problematic concern is that there has been a number of criticisms over this theory. The weird thing that I realized and the article confess itself why there should only be three types of language function. As it suggest may be there is a possibility of the forth function. In the article the example for that is ‘Ladies and gentleman’ that is used to signal the start of formal speech or announcement.
According to me, the translation method employed is far more than just text type because the translator’s own role and purpose, as well as socio cultural pressures, also affect the kind of translation strategy that is adopted. I mean the method is just one part but the translator himself constitutes the big partition.
The article contributed me to differentiate between roles and players involving in a communicative process. The initiator is the company or individual who needs the translation and commissioner is the individual who contacts translator.
In addition, in the article the terminology is seen as the systematic designation of defined concepts within a specific field. In fact it demands specialized knowledge and the authorization to exercise a specific profession connected to this specialized knowledge. It is also connected to language use in specific professional situations by people with specific qualifications for exercising a given profession. This is indeed a pragmatic approach to terminology, being derived from a pragmatic definition of Fachsprache or special language as this is frequently labeled in English: Verbal and non-verbal official professional communication, carried out by specialists for the purpose of representing the social interests of an organization.
I like the idea that as a teacher I can look the vocabulary and decide which is appropriate for my students because as stated in one of the example from the article, for a vocabulary there are many options. The example in the article is related to the onomastic field diabetes mellitus are translated differently depending on the specific needs of the translation situation. The article states that a text on eye diseases in connection with diabetes written by an American eye specialist for non-specialist doctors was translated into Norwegian as an information leaflet for nurses working at municipal health stations in Norway. The knowledge level of the two target groups differed, but both target groups have professional knowledge on the field of diabetes. I agree with the author in terms of the importance of translation commission and the necessity of commission’s giving information such as the intended text functions; the addressees, the time and place of text reception, medium and the motive
As an English teacher I think that the case study in the article is a good sample for me especially the motive part because it says that it has a purpose of teaching British children the basics of coking in an entertaining way using tools and ingredients that are readily available. I think that as a teacher, I like to give students chance to practice what they learn. They are transmitting information about cookery and specific recipes. It has also an appellative function. Their age is 10 and their parents are purchasers of the book. The time difference has little importance and for the medium there are many photographs and illustrations. In the results of the case study it says there are important differences of culture, especially regarding customs, experience and presuppositions. They learn the translation with an intended text. I am planning to integrate this part. It is beneficial for me to learn the features of medium such as non verbal elements, the register of the text and presuppositions are crucial for the translation process and product. The register of the lexis is the factor that is difficult for the translator to decide. The basic relevant factors is that we are dealing with a recipe book and as is well known, recipes are strictly organized text variety or genre with conventions that vary interlingually and the other is related to appellative function. For the presupposition, the problem is the use of text results from the divergence n cultural background for translator.
Lastly, I like the idea that as a teacher I can look the vocabulary and decide which is appropriate for my students because as stated in one of the example from the article, for a vocabulary there are many options. The example in the article is related to the onomastic field diabetes mellitus are translated differently depending on the specific needs of the translation situation. The article states that a text on eye diseases in connection with diabetes written by an American eye specialist for non-specialist doctors was translated into Norwegian as an information leaflet for nurses working at municipal health stations in Norway. The knowledge level of the two target groups differed, but both target groups have professional knowledge on the field of diabetes. There was a clear sign of professional communication between different professional groups with differing knowledge within one onomastic field. . In this case the use of terminology indicates the shared knowledge of the groups.